Friday, May 11, 2012

Moms....Always and Forever....


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.....

 

Jan's Mom and family.....

Jan and sons.....

Jan,  son & family...



Coreen's Mom and family....

Coreen, Toni, Dyane, Aunt Marie, Aunt Irene
Toni, Mom, Coreen, Aunt Marie 

Aunt Marie, Frank & Dyane, Coreen, Mom




grandmother's house where I grew up.....


Carol's Ma and family......


68 comments:

Coreen said...

Well it worked, they are all here...

I think I can add more if you have others...

Just so you know, the black & whites are of me (naturally)...my granmother holding me, my mom at Christmas when I was a week old,
me in the snowfort my uncle Ernie built for me (I have always been surrounded by snow!), me in someone's car with mom, right on the street where my grandmother's house was (see I grew up liking cars!), me & one of my dolls (I was a spoiled child), me & my aunt Marie and mom at Beardsley Park....

My aunt Marie passed away in February, 2011...she helped raise
me from a child and made it possible for me to go to law school, have my home, & provided for us all in so many ways...she was like a second mother...

My friend Toni is the closest thing I have to a sister, we have been friends for more than 50 years...my cousin Dyane's dad was my mother's brother...

Coreen said...

Oh and I had the roses made up for mom for this Mother's Day, they are in the kitchen....and s friend
sent mom another dozen roses today...

Coreen said...

Grandma's house was a 4-family....My grandmother had 8 children & they grew up there before I was born...they lived in 2of the 4 apartments...My great-grandmother also lived there...
she lived upstairs when I was little...looking at the pic, we all lived on the left side...in the pic where my mother is standing on the porch...

Carol said...

Great Post Coreen.

I was thinking that same thing about cars when I saw little Coreen sitting behind the wheel of that auto.

I just bet you were spoiled rotten Coreen. Well actually..I never had any doubt about it. In pic #14...I can hear you saying..nobody better touch my dolly. It's mine.. all mine and you 99% better go find your own toys.

Carol said...

Great family pics Jan. Your mother was beautiful.

Carol said...

Pic # 19 of mom holding those fish was a little stained. Those were fish we caught in one of the irrigation ditches. I told y'all that shortly after Pa would start up the irrigation pumps..the fish would come up in those ditches and it was like fishing in a goldfish bowl. I don't know where they came from but boy did we have fun doing that.

Two of my favorite activities with mom were fishing in those canals and picking wildflowers in the fall. We'd drive around the countryside and find wildflowers to pick and I'd try to dry some of them.

Cooking was another activity we both enjoyed. She enjoyed it better when I did the cooking but she was a great cook and I got most of my cooking skills from her.

Coreen said...

Good morning, just came in from
getting the papers, feeding the birds...& it is a beautiful morning...

Thought the pics all came out pretty good considering some are
extremely old...

Carol, who is with your mom in the pic with the puppy & the child...is that pa or your dad....

Jan, same for your B&W family pic...

Carol said...

Pic # 18 is mama and Pa sitting in the swing holding Mary's and my sons. If you can't tell..Pa is holding Mary's son..Jeremy and mama is holding my son..Rocky.

Those were some of the happiest times I remember for Pa.

Carol said...

Mama was quite a looker herself. I think she'd be happy that I included that first photo of her..when she was young. She was beautiful up until the last year of her life..when that cancer took the life out of her. I just hated seeing her turn instantly old. It almost happened overnight.

Carol said...

Coreen..I don't have any pics of my mom and real dad. He had cancer for the last 8-9 years of his life and his face was terribly disfigured. He died at age 51..too young.

Coreen said...

You are correct...only children...we don't share, but I would gladly get you your own stuff, just can't have mine!!....

And that coat & hat in the pic with my doll, almost forgot, my grandfather was a tailor and made me outfits...I still have a coat in a closet from then, believe it or not....

You can also see that we are 'city' folks, all the way...

The background where I am in the car is of St. Michael's Church & school, which was across the street from the house...I went to grammar school there...it was a polish catholic school & they taught polish, even prayers & hymns were said in polish...I was one of the few non-polish kids who went to it...polish families drove their kids to St. Michael's from all the surrounding towns to go to the polish catholic school...

By the way the church is still there...it was a beautiful church, & probably gram's house ...though I have not been in that neighborhood in many, many years...it is now a pretty rundown part of Bpt...

Carol said...

Ya know Coreen..I'm a quarter Polish. Mom's birth dad was Polish. He died shortly after she was born. His name was something like Dersvisky. I don't have a clue how it was spelled. Ever heard that name?

Coreen said...

Don't recognize that name Carol...

Do you know where your family came from...my mom's family...the italians came here through Ellis Island and there is a website for
Ellis that you can find your ancestor's names & a bit of info
on how they got here...it is interesting & fascinating that there are records still in existence, since my memory says grandma came here in the early 1900s....

I found my grandmother & her sister's names entered on the log
when they came in the early 1900s...

We don't know how my grandfather arrived here though...

And my father's parents died when he & his brother were like 5, so they were raised by a family friend, so I have no solid info how is parents got here...but they came from Russia...

Carol said...

My mama's parents were Martinecks came over from Czechoslovakia.

Carol said...

Sorry..that was her mama's parents.

Carol said...

Remember..mama was born in Oak Park Illinois..a suburb of Chicago. She had such an accent and I had the exact same accent when I was growing up. I talked like a Yankee and very fast. Mom lost some of that accent over the years and so did I but people around here still think that I wasn't born around here.

Carol said...

I have a tendency to pick up the accent of whoever I'm around. Put me with some real country bumpkins and I'll be talking just like them.

jan said...

OMGosh Coreen, you did a beautiful job with the pictures. Now I am going back to reading everything here.

jan said...

This is a real treat! I just shared all of the pictures and comments with John.

jan said...

Coreen, it is great seeing pics of you as a very young child and your mother and family members who were important to you, especially your aunt Marie who was such an important woman in your life. You must still be grieving to loss of your aunt Marie. Please accept my condolences. I love the house you grew up in. What a beautiful place.

jan said...

Carol, your mother was always a beautiful lady. She was kind to me when I knew her. Do you remember she gave me a blood pressure cuff when we were in our master's programs - for following Mary during her pregnancy.

jan said...

I think my favorite pictures of you both are the ones with your mothers.

jan said...

Coreen, your mother was and is a beautiful woman. You are so fortunate to have her with you.

Carol said...

No..I didn't remember that about mama Jan.

Jeremy was the apple of mom's eye. I think she considered him her own son and since he was her only son..she doted on him. He could do no wrong even though he tried hard to convince her otherwise.

She enabled all his bad behavior when he was young and there was no talking her out of that. He didn't even start growing up until she was gone.

jan said...

Coreen, my dad was an only child. He did not share easily either. My grandmother (his mom) once told me that when he was a little kid and his cousins would come to play he would hide his toys.

jan said...

Coreen, I have forgotten the month and day of your birth - must be around Christmas - I see a tree behind you in the pic when you were a week old.

jan said...

The first pic is my mother when she was about 20. The 2nd pic is my sister, brother and me as children. I am tallest, my sis is beside me and my brother is in my granddad's arms. My mother is behind my sis and me and the 2 older women are my grandmother and her sister ( great aunt Ellen). This is my dad's parents and his mother's sister. They are the ones who are cherokee indian.

jan said...

My mother is 1/2 English (her mother ) and 1/2 German Jewish. My mother's grandfather (paternal) came to this country from Germany and he spoke Yiddish. My mother's father fought for the US in WWI and died in 1918 in the big flu epidemic - my mother was only 2 y/o at the time.

Carol said...

Mama really loved you Jan and she didn't always love my friends. If they took me away from spending time with her..at all..she resented them.

I really didn't mind spending time with her..we had lots of fun together. She was sort of a best friend.

jan said...

the last 2 pics are me with my sons. The 3rd pic is me with my 2 oldest sons taken in our home here. The 4th pic is my youngest son and his 2 daughters and the boy is a friend of my oldest granddaughter. That pic was taken when they visited 2 Christmases ago - up in the mountains.

Carol said...

Jan..Coreen has never told us her birthdate but that was pretty good detective work. OK Coreen..fess up.

jan said...

I was just wondering what month and day of the week you were born Coreen.

jan said...

My granddaughter in the 4th of my pics (the one with the dark cap on - can only see her face - actually looks a lot like my mother.

jan said...

Coreen, the roses/flower arrangement is gorgeous. A lovely way to begin the post.

jan said...

Coreen, so interesting about your Aunt Marie. I was sharing this post with John. You and John have something in common. John's grandfather died when john's dad was only a few days old. John's dad was then raised by his uncle GC Hardin who was an attorney. His Uncle GC then put him (John's dad) through law school and also provided for several other family members. He was like a grandfather to John. People did that back in those days. John's great great etc, etc uncle was John Wesley Hardin.

John says he is the black sheep of the family because he went to seminary and became an Episcopal priest. His dad, brother, uncles and several cousins are all attorneys.

Carol said...

They have the Joshua Ledet parade on TV here now. I have a trusty reporter at the parade right now. She just texted me a pic of her holding a Joshua poster.

I'm meeting two other friends to ride with at 3p today. One has made us posters to hold up. I kinda feel like a kid again.

They are calling it Hurricane Josh..the biggest thing to hit this area since Hurricane Rita.

Carol said...

You can tell he is overwhelmed by his reception here. He's such a humble young man.

jan said...

He is a humble young man. The judges were so overwhelming with their assessments of his singing and he seemed embarrassed by the comments.

They will be showing their trips home so I will be looking for your poster. Be sure and let us know what you write on it.

Carol said...

Jan..I'm not doing the poster..one of the girl's I'm going with is. It's Cindy..my secretary/security/body guard at work. I'm going with her and her husband. My friend Steph is heading over with my ticket now. She has a crawfish boil to attend before she goes.

Steph got a great pic of him at the parade. Her mom taught Josh and he was saying hi to her. I'll post both pics she got on my blog post. I'm excited.

They are having a little pre concert..concert. One of his relatives is in a Zydeco band. That ought to be fun also. I'm ready to roll as soon as I get my ticket. I'll let you know what's on my poster. It won't be aired until next week. Should I streak thru the arena so I'll be sure to show up on TV?? Just don't want to have a heart attack..that might attract some attention also and I'd be more likely to do that than do any streaking.

Carol said...

Well..heading out. I can even blog from the event..if I have time.

jan said...

I am so excited for you - already said that - but say it again. I am so excited for Josh and his family. What a great thing for them. Josh is going to be so big in music.

Carol said...

Been standing in line 35 minutes. 25 minutes let. Still excited?

Carol said...

Finally sitting. Phew.

Georgia said...

Hey Carol....I can't hear you on your phone but I heard the music, funny you called now, I was reading the blog to see if you had posted anything about the concert

Georgia said...

I see where you said you could post from Iphony...

Georgia said...

Have fun...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jan said...

Thanks for the pic on phone Carol. Glad you got to sit down.

Carol said...

Listening to Zydeco. Waiting.....

Carol said...

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers. Being a mother is/was the most important mission of your life. You all accomplished something wonderful. You made a lot of sacrifices. You took on a overwhelming job and it was one..that from the moment of conception..you couldn't turn back from..well I guess you could have but you didn't. And it never ends..there's no retirement..or retirement compensation. It was strictly a volunteer mission. You all deserve a huge thank you for your service to humanity. Thank you all very much!

Carol said...

And sorry..but you'll just have to share your day with the Josh Ledet family because our Lieutenant Governor also named today Joshua Ledet Family Day.

I really wasn't too cool with that idea. Joshua is really good..I love him and all.. but he really can't compete with all you mothers..not even close. Even if he becomes the greatest superstar ever..he will never come close to accomplishing what you mothers have accomplished...not close!

Yesterday should have been Joshua Ledet Family Day because it really was. Someone needs to tell that Jay Dardenne that he's a idiot. But then he is a man..typical man thing to do to try and undermine Mother's Day and..worse yet..he's a Republican and that alone explains it all. Enough said.

Carol said...

Yesterday was quite an experience. I proved I had endurance. Don't feel jealous. I spent 6 hours proving my loyalty to our hometown boy that has made it big. I'm glad I did it but I'd have to forget some of the experience to do it again.

I WAS very impressed with our small towns..and I do mean "towns" in the plural..not possessive. They really put together a love fest for our native son who made it big. I'm not sure any other towns.. of the people on Idol.. could ever compete with what these little southern towns did. The lady who MCed last night said as much.

I wouldn't call what I attended last night a concert it was a love fest and photo op. But I'm glad I went. The sound system wasn't set up to really hear what anyone said on the stage. From the stands..it was kinda like what you hear from the Peanut's character's teachers and mothers..wa wa wa wa wa wa. You could hear the music but only recognize a few of the words spoken.

The four of us finally migrated down to the floor in front of the stage. From there you could hear what was being said and the words to the music. That lasted about 15 minutes. I got some pic and a short video from there and will post it on my Joshua Ledet post.

One reason that I'm glad I went is because it gave me the opportunity to spend some bonding time with two significant people in my life. I work with these two women. We have shared good times and bad. Both of these women were the one's who talked me into buying my camp. I'm really appreciative of that. I wouldn't have done it without their encouragement. They both saw potential in something I thought was an eyesore.

We all went out to eat after the concert/photo op. That was the best part of the evening. Both of these women were meant to be in my life. They were/are two of my teachers in life school.

Carol said...

I thought I was kinda old to be going to that event yesterday but..I tell ya..there were people there that made me feel like a youngster. There were old old people in wheelchairs. I almost needed one but my friends were watching out for me.

jan said...

Carol, thanks for the lovely affirmation of mothers. My oldest son, Bill, took John and me to breakfast this morning. A treat! Now we are back home and in our respective places on the couch enjoying peace and quiet with little granddoggie between us. As soon as I sat down she snuggled up to my right side. She is the sweetest little dog.

jan said...

Sounds like a good time yesterday Carol. So glad the towns turned out for the home town boy. Now I hope every one continues to vote for Joshua.

Carol said...

Well...it's been a busy day. My Dish guy came and he did know what he was doing but somehow Dish has stopped my Local Optional service. They can't explain it. I talked with someone with a heavy foreign accent. At first she said I couldn't get it. I told the woman that I already had it and just moved the receiver 1.7 miles to my house so what happened. She didn't have a clue.

Yesterday I saw in an email that they sent me that the local service had been dropped. I called them and the woman I talked to said don't worry about that..it was right on the work order. Yea..sure.

This foreign lady..after much fussing.. finally said that it should be back within 24 hours. I'm not really counting on it. All the equipment is set up for it. She gave me 3 months of all the premium movie channels for my trouble. I told her that I wasn't really interested in those..I want my dang local channels on the dish.

I mainly like the ability to record..pause..etc. Tomorrow I want to watch DWTS and record America's Got Talent to see Howard Stern. Dish and I are going to go round and round if that service isn't back tomorrow . I'm supposed to be one of their prized customers. I guess I am since I pay for all this crap and don't watch much of any of it. I had the system at my house..paying for it for a year while I was at the camp and only the roaches watched it here.

Carol said...

I've got 250 channels with all those movie channels and I'm watching the TV I get on my rabbit ears. Go figure.

After two days of following those Dish technicians and asking questions..I could apply for a job as one. The first guy did need my tools. He left three nice holes in my yard and lots of cement around them. I filled in the holes myself. Next time I mow..I'll probably be shooting rocks at my vehicle and house.

Carol said...

Remember I told you that I offered the pool guy.. who took the place of my last pool/boat guy who is jail for DWI..extra work to blow off my roof and clean out my little pool house. It was full of dirt and Oak leaves. Roomy and first pool guy.. who asked me to rent my house to his girlfriend..didn't do anything to keep that up.

The guy I offered the job to needed money really bad. Well he never came to do the work and he's been throw out of his apartment for not paying his bill. My camp neighbor swept off the roof when he patched the roof around the fireplace chimney. And today I got to cleaning my own little dang pool house.

I have plenty of little jobs and I pay a better than decent wage for the work and still can't find anyone to do these jobs. My old ass has to end up doing them myself. Some of these people in the lower end of the 99% just don't want to work. If I can do the work..a guy 1/3 my age should be able to do it easily.

I also repainted this wicker furniture I keep in that little house. It's only screened in and the weather will get to that furniture after a while. I usually have to do it every other year but it's probably been three years since it was last done.

With all the other stuff I did..I had a pretty productive Sunday. Ya know..my job wasn't this much work. And I also hit Walmart today. I think I haven't missed a day there since I've been off. Well..I did need that spray paint..and you can't get out of Walmart with only what you went in for.

Carol said...

And while I'm out there struggling with all the heavy labor..I'm thinking..maybe God thinks I need the exercise and...she's right. If I wasn't doing that..I'd probably be on the couch..playing on my computer and eating gummy worms. I did have to pass the gummy worm section at Walmart.. on my way to the paint department..well..it was only a long detour to get to it.

jan said...

You do have trouble with workers. I have much better luck with house cleaners and yard cleaners here than I ever had anywhere else. The are all hispanic. wonder if that could be it.

Carol said...

Jan..I'm afraid I'd have much better luck with some visitors from down south. They seem to have a better work ethic.

jan said...

While I have been writing to you, I am getting texts from my son and wife from Phoenix. They are there to pick up her son - had to take 10 y/o GD to hosp. Sx's of appendicitis. She is getting ready for a CT scan now.

Carol said...

I have my Joshua Ledet post all ready. I'll post it tomorrow.

Carol said...

Oh Jan..I hope it is only bad gas pains.

jan said...

She has had diarrhea for 2 days, stomach cramps on R side and not much of an appetite. The docs said she is dehydrated. She now has an IV going and going for CT scan.

jan said...

They had an appendicitis scare with her 2 or 3 years ago and it was not. She had all symptoms, even blood tests, but CT scan showed "not"

Carol said...

Has she been under some stress recently? Many of us take that in the gut. I sure used to.

jan said...

I do too.

Carol said...

New Post